David S. Williamson
David S. Williamson, proprietor of a farm in the Cedarville neighborhood, now living retired at Cedarville, the operations of the farm being carried on by his son, Raymond T. Williamson, is a member of one of Greene county's old families, and has lived here all his life. He was born on a farm in the vicinity of the village of Jamestown on December 29, 1851, son of John S. and Jane (Kyle) Williamson, and was the last-born of the three children born to that parentage, his mother having died when he was two years and eight months of age. She was a daughter and eldest child of Judge Samuel Kyle, one of the foremost pioneers of Greene county and further mention of whom is made elsewhere in this volume.
John S. Williamson was the fourth in order of birth of the ten children of David and Catherine (Duncan) Williamson, who came to this county with their family in 1836 and settled in that part of the county now included in New Jasper township, their farm of three hundred acres being situated along Caesarscreek at a point equidistant between Xenia and Jamestown, as is set out elsewhere in this volume, together with a comprehensive narrative relating to the Williamson family in Greene county. In a biographical sketch relating to Samuel K. Williamson, elder brother of the subject of this sketch, there is set out at some length a history of the career of John S. Williamson, who died at his home in Cedarville in the fall of 1898.
David S. Williamson grew up to the life of the farm. His schooling was received in the neighborhood schools, being completed in the Cedarville schools, his father having moved to the farm on the Cincinnati-Columbus pike, two miles west of Cedarville, now owned by Mr. Williamson, when he was twelve years of age. On that place he grew to manhood and after his father's retirement from the farm and removal to Cedarville in 1873 he took charge of the place and after his marriage in 1881 established his home there, continuing to make that his place of residence, having inherited the farm after his father's death, until his retirement in April, 1917, and removal to Cedarville, where he now resides, though still retaining a supervisory oversight of the place, which he is accustomed to visit nearly every day. As with several others of the Williamsons, Mr. Williamson was early attracted to the possibilities of sheep raising and for many years his farm west of Cedarville has been largely devoted to the breeding of fine Merino sheep. The work there inaugurated by him is now being carried on by his son, Raymond T. Williamson, who occupied the home place and is carrving on the operations of the farm.
On February 9, 1881, at the home of the bride about a mile east of Cedarville, David S. Williamson was united in marriage to Nannie A. McMillan, who was born on that place on Jannary 23, 1856, a daughter of Hugh T. and Rachel McMillan, the former a member of the well-known McMillan family of this county, and to this union have been born five children, two of whom died at birth, the survivors being Mary Erwin, bom on April 12, 1885, now at home; Florence Jane, September 6, 1887, who is now teaching school at Nevada, Iowa, and Raymond Torrence, June 23, 1891, who, as noted above, is now farming the home place. In January, 1917, Raymond Torrence Williamson married Fannie Stroup and is making his home on the home place, his parents having moved into Cedarville about the time of his marriage. The Williamsons are members of the Covenanter church at Cedarville. Mr. Williamson is a Republican.
From Portrait and Biographical Album of Clark and Greene Counties, Chapman Bros., Chicago, published 1890